Texas Top Aviation wants to express our heartfelt concerns and prayers for those affected by Hurricane Harvey along the Texas Gulf Coast and in Houston. We have several customers in Houston and hope and pray that they are all safe.
If you would like to donate to the relief effort, there are several organizations that are accepting support. A few are below.
The Angelina County Airport in Lufkin, TX (KLFK) will be hosting the Angelina County Airfest on Saturday, October 10th. The airport will open up at 9am.
Prepare for a day of food, fun, and some great performances. There will be warbirds and many other classic airplanes on display, not too mention a number of aerobatic performances as the day goes on.
To learn more about the Airfest, visit the Angelina County Airfest website. Tickets start at $10 for adults.
A new app came out last year that fits a need for many owners. Coflyt, available on the Apple App Store for $14/month for up to two airplanes, helps immensely with staying organized. Those questions of, “When is my oil change due?” or “Has the plane had it’s IFR inspections?” are easily answered by checking the app instead of having to dig through maintenance logs.
Not only does Coflyt help keep track of maintenance, but it also houses squawk lists that owner’s can send to maintenance shops as well as keeping track of Airworthiness Directives. If the pilot remembers at the end of flights to put the amount in, it even shows how much fuel is remaining in the airplane.
For flying clubs and partnerships, it provides easy scheduling without having to share calendars. Payments can also be taken and flights tracked. No more paper flight sheets after flights to track down.
As a pilot, it helps immensely to be organized. For $14 a month ($36/month for partnerships or flying clubs), that’s a small price to pay.
It’s winter time, which means it’s time to use those Piper PA46 de-ice boots a little more often. Most of us know the winter flying rules, don’t stay in ice, get rid of frost, etc. However, most of us aren’t as familiar with how to maintain those Piper PA46 de-ice boots. The do need some TLC every couple of months to keep them in tip top shape.
Below is the recommendation from Goodrich (the maker of the boots) on what to use to clean and polish the boots and how often to do it.
Steps 1-3 below are your twice a year items to make your Piper PA46 de-ice boots last through the lifetime of the aircraft.
ShineMaster Prep strips all the dirt, grime, grease, oil, silicone products and old ShineMaster on the Piper PA46 de-ice boots to prep them for Step 2.
ShineMaster Prep can be found on Goodrich’s website.
AgeMaster is your second step the in the Piper PA46 de-ice boot preservation and protectant process. AgeMaster is a rubber preservative that protects against weathering, ozone, and ultraviolet rays.
Make the first application when your de-ice boots are 6 months old, then re-apply every 150 hours (or twice a year) after that.
AgeMaster #1 can be purchased on Goodrich’s website.
Step 3 in the Piper PA46 de-ice boot care is ShineMaster. As the name implies, ShineMaster shine’s the boots up after getting rid of all the old gunk & grime with ShineMaster Prep and after AgeMaster is applied. 2-3 coats should be sufficient.
ShineMaster can be purchased on Goodrich’s website.
During icing season, Goodrich recommends ICEX II. ICEX II is an ice inhibitor that should be applied every 50 hours during ice season. This will help prevent ice from sticking to the Piper PA46 de-ice boots. ICEX II can be found here.
Finally, for general cleaning of the boots after each flight, utilize Goodrich Aerospace Cleaner to debug, then follow up with Goodrich Aerospace Protectant. Goodrich claims their Protectant will resist dust, soiling, and staining. There may be less bugs to clean each time!
With just a few hours a couple times a year spent working on the Piper PA46 de-ice boots, owners will never have to worry about the hefty price tag of boot replacement!
Ever wanted to be a Cirrus owner, but the economics of being a single owner just don’t make sense for you? If you’re in the San Marcos/New Braunfels/Austin area, you now have a chance to join a Cirrus SR20 partnership at the San Marcos Municipal airport, KHYI.
The Cirrus SR20 partnership group is looking for 2-4 more members to buy in to a 2006 or 2007 Cirrus SR20 GTS. The plane will be kept at KHYI and the group already has a hangar for it.
For more information, please contact Texas Top Aviation at info@txtopaviation.com.
The AOPA Air Safety Institute is making it’s annual loop through Texas this January. The topic for this Safety Seminar is “More Difficult Decisions: Choices & Consequences.”
The seminar is geared our the decision making process that we as pilots face on each flight. Some decisions are easy (what altitude should I pick?) while some have much greater consequences and should be taken very seriously.
This event will be interactive for the participants as several scenarios will be presented. The goal is to help pilots learn to think through each decision, weighing the consequences along the weigh to arrive at the safest outcome of the flight.
The first area seminar will be held on Tuesday, January 21st at the Stinson Field Airport (KSSF, 8535 Mission Road, San Antonio, TX 78214). The second area seminar will be held on Wednesday, January 22nd at the TXDOT office in Austin (200 E. Riverside Dr., Austin, TX 78704). WINGs credit is available for all attendees.
Learn more here.
Just south of the equator in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia on the island of New Guinea, pilots spend their days carrying food, building supplies, doctors, pigs, and passengers into some of the most remote and extreme airstrips on the planet. That’s where I fly.
Each morning I load my Cessna Grand Caravan with 2,600 lbs of (insert strange cargo here) and depart my home base of Wamena just after the sun sends its first rays of light across the waking skies above. I spend my day winding through narrow valleys and crossing high altitude mountain passes with building clouds and poor communication, only to land on short, narrow airstrips with steep slopes and little room for error. Most of these one-way in, one-way out runways require me to commit to landing well before touchdown due to terrain that is too close to allow for a safe go-around. Everything better be right when I cross that decision point or I could be in for some excitement.
The need to keep wide margins of safety might seem obvious in environments like mine, but that doesn’t make them any less important where you fly. You may be a new pilot or an old timer, but keeping your margin should always be on the top of your priority list.
Let’s unpack this further. Margin is not just maintaining the regulatory requirements for cloud clearances or minimum altitudes. It’s more than planning for an alternate airport or carrying the required fuel reserve. Margin is breathing room. It is that extra maneuvering room, the Plan C, the well thought out options that provide you multiple “outs” in any given situation. Margin is what gets you home when things take a turn for the worse.
Margin comes in all shapes and sizes. For myself it includes maintaining double my required turn radius in narrow valleys or choosing not to land when my groundspeed is just 1 knot too high at a short and slippery airstrip. For you, it could be determining a ceiling or visibility minimum requirement that is more conservative than the legal ones or setting a wind limitation that you know is reasonable. When it comes down to it, keeping your margin means you don’t push to the ragged edge of your skill or the aircraft’s capability.
Margin can also refer to your mental or emotional capacity. Are you mentally prepared to divert and miss that important event because the weather is getting bad? Are you ready to handle the disappointment of passengers when you arrive over your airstrip and choose not to land due to approaching rain or a factor that is difficult for a non-pilot to understand? Are you willing to cancel a flight on an important client because you are coming down with a cold or didn’t get adequate sleep? As the PIC of your flying machine, you alone are responsible for the safety of the aircraft and the people on board and those are the tough calls that only you can make.
Fatigue, overconfidence, and complacency are the biggest obstacles to keeping your margin. They are all very subtle dangers and you may be experiencing them without even recognizing it. Fatigue can slow down your thought process leaving you behind the plane and backed into a corner before you know it. Overconfidence might cause you to push weather or commit to a course of action that has no favorable alternatives. Complacency will lead you to believe that, because you have 2000 hours in a particular make and model, you don’t need to do a thorough preflight or complete the pre-landing checklist.
Regardless of experience level, operating environment, fancy avionics, and level of proficiency, margin is something that we all need plenty of. So as you go about your upcoming flights, be asking yourself what you can do to build in more margin. It just might be what gets you home.
Pete Greenwald is a transplant to Atlanta, Georgia who has fallen in love with all things Southern, including his wife, Ashley. As a pilot and A&P with Mission Aviation Fellowship, he flies the Cessna Grand Caravan in Papua, Indonesia serving people who live in isolation. In his spare time he is on the hunt for the best burger around.
